Your first mobile Doctor

SFR, the second operator in france, offers a new free service calles DoctorClic, which allows you to benefit from pratical advice on health problems of the everyday life.
This is an adaptation for mobile of the site Doctorclic.com, and this service allows you to fill in a number of criterias ( age, sex...) and indicating symptoms to get immediate advice on what to do and the degree of medical emergency.

DocteurClic is based on an expert system designed by a team of emergency doctors. This system manages 130 possible symptoms and calculates the probability of 220 diagnoses of emergency. Anywhere and anytime, the service allows to answer 4 key questions: is this normal? What to do? Is it serious? Who to consult?
DocteurClic is an information service and does not substitute in any way to a medical diagnosis. Launched by MedServices in 2001, the site receives over 150 000 unique visits per month. Now available on the SFR network, it will be deployed in pharmacies ( bluetooth points).

So wass' up doc?

Is the Open source the main alternative?

Users now want to access their address books, calendars, emails, or their images whether on their mobile and PC. Its seems that the Open source is now the only alternative to keep pace with the rapid development of services and mobile terminals...
This is not advertisement! :-)

With its mobile open source community, Funambol could be the only solution to the synchronization of the scope of several billion mobile phones around the world, including smartphones such as iPhone, Blackberry Storm, Google Android G1.
Funambol annouces V8 MobileWe Funambol, the new generation of its flagship software allowing a synchronization of billions of mobile phones. Among other features, V8 Funambol offers a new AJAX web portal that facilitates the synchronization of personal information, email and multimedia contents between mobile phones, online services and computers, Funambole software also supports widely used desktop applications such as Outlook, but also host email services like Gmail, AOL Mail, Yahoo! mail and hotmail.

Screenshot there: http://www.funambol.com/v8/Funambolv8_homepage.html

MWC 09

60 000 visitors are expected for the opening of the MWC in Barcelona. Given the waves of innovation and the centrality of mobile services that will continue to take in our daily lives, there is little chances that the crisis affects the show.
Here's what we can expect a few days before the inauguration:

Attack on the manufacturers stands for the collection fall/ winter 2009:
As every year, the challenge is to discover the roadmap of the major manufacturers. Some have just been announced, as the Nokia ( 6700, 2700, 6303), Samsung ( Ultra touch S8300), LG ( Arena KM900), While others are under heavy rumors ( Nokia E75, Samsung i9810 Acme, C6625 or Blackberry Gemini curve 9300). There sill be surely a media interest for the new entrants, or old "ghosts" ( Acer, Toshiba, dell, Hundai...).
Apple won't have a booth, but will be in all conversations.

Great expectations aroung Google Android & Windows Mobile:
Many visitors will see demonstrations of the G2 and other terminals for Android announced for 2009. The presss conference of Microsoft is strongly expected with many rumors about windows mobile ( phone?) 6.5, or Skybox. Microsoft must respond to the acquisition of Symbian by Nokia, and the arrival of linux.

Anticipation of new technologies:
Like every year, vendors will not fail to highlight the 4G ( Wimax will still be outrun by LTE), the Femtocell, NFC and mobile payments, as well as geolocalisation.

Even more pronounced for mobile social networks, and geo-localisation services:
And the convergence of both ( the concept of social location recently developed by Nokia or the launch of Google Latitude are there to prove it). These services should be more media followed, and located in the mobile Entertainment Hall 7, always a little appart.
And there will inevitably be many debates on the role of advertising on mobile, in these times of crisis.

The real highlight of the show will probably be around widget / applications and stores/ user interface:
Many actors will make announcements in this area: Nokia can not respond to the AppStore, Skymarket ( Microsoft) and Android Market ( Google), Application center RIM must specify his environment while many operators and traditional market ( On-device-portal) will take new ads.

The good news is that the show will focus more on user experience and less on technology; and a myriad of start-ups and innovative services are going to make talk about them!
Cheers, there are only 6 days left before the event!

Image recognition in Japan

A Japanese leading service provider of image recognition, J-Magic, has launched its new platform for image recognition on mobile. "Dubbed SAYL2", The new platform will not only perform images recognition, but also facial recognition, so that the mobile becomes a tool that can distinguish the sex and age of a person.

SAYL2 adds these features facial recognition, which can detects faces in an image, and compare the face with facial features previously stored on the server. The technology was developed by Omron. Thus, it will be possible to analyze the difference in these 2 images to bring the percentage of similarity between the 2 faces. This type of function can be used for entertaining content, for example to compare the face of a user and that of a celebrity, as "Kao-shek", but on an ad hoc basis for companies.

In addition to the comparison of faces, it will be possible to decorate the faces automatically, for example, add a beard or glasses save. The system detects the gender and age of the person on the photo, which can be used for interactive posters, to project content appropriate to each generation, and measure the effectiveness of hearing by counting the number of people who stops in front of a poster. The Smile of the user is also a recognizable objects on this platform, which can measure the degrees of smiles. It will therefore be possible to display an advertisement specific to women in their twenties, with a decoration of glasses on their faces.

I definitly love Japanese mobile services concepts :-) .

NTT DoCoMo launches a new mobile for business people, remote handling.

The Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo has just introduced a new Device aimed at professionals. Manufactured by Fujitsu, the terminal F-06A offers a function of remote control to protect the motive for leaking confidential information, or non-professional use by the holder of the mobile. This terminal will be on sale on 23 January, on the Japanese market only, through the professional services of the operator.

The use of mobile professionals is increasingly important in the Japanese market and there is a strong demand for the protection of confidential information contained in the mobile. The first characteristic of the F-06A is its ability to be controlled remotely, in case of loss or theft of mobile. It is possible to reformat parts of the mobile, such address book, call history, messages, photos or calendar remotely. Also to avoid the abuse of employees on the use of mobile for personal purposes, it is also possible to limit or set some distance phone functions (image sensor, address book, infra red locking, etc.) . To be able to perform this grip remote mobile, you must subscribe to an optional subscription dedicated professional.

For more security information, this phone does not certain duties on mobile memory cards, FeliCa, or data transfer via USB. The entertainment functions (One-seg, music player, etc.) are not supported either.

France: Prohibit the sale of mobile under 12 years?

Excellent news of a future law that would ban the sale of mobile young people under 12 who are "more susceptible because their bodies are still growing"

"Art. L. 5231-3. - Any communication, whatever the medium or the media, aimed directly or indirectly, to promote the sale, supply, use or the use of mobile phones by children under twelve years is prohibited”.

Another article: Article L. 34-9 of the postal code and electronic communications, it is inserted a third paragraph reads: "The radio terminals to be connected to a network open to the public for the provision of telephone service cannot be marketed without an accessory to limit the exposure of the head to radio emissions in communications. "

The precautionary principle is common sense, it has not yet been possible to date to conduct epidemiological studies to determine the health effects of long-term exposure to frequencies emitted by mobile phones. And it is also the case of a population that are heavily equipped with future consumers of tomorrow, then we must care! In any case the world's young people represent approximately 18% of the world population, they remain what to do ....so the marketing services operators will have to show initiative and imagination if the law is passed!

iPhone from the Asian side, or 2009 as the japanese attack on Appstore

The iPhone is not only a revolution in Europe and North America, where its success finally created the conditions for a takeoff of the Internet and mobile multimedia. But it represents a new challenge for the traditional leaders in this area: South Korea and Japan. In very different contexts, the success of the iPhone has changed the look from the actors of the market in these two countries in Europe and could lead to a return in force for developers of applications, including Japanese, on the Old continent.

On the side of Japan, iPhone has a limited success on the archipelago, but its impact on the strategy of the players is likely to be major. Launched by the third operator Softbank Mobile in July, iPhone does not have two main popular functions of the Japanese Mobiles - FeliCa Sim contactless (and its functions as payment and transport mobile) and mobile TV. Unlike the case of South Korea, iPhone has a small impact on the Japanese market. However, it radically changes the look of content providers on the Japanese mobile market from Europe and America.

A new opportunity: 2009 could be the year of the Japanese attack on iPhone
For those publishers Japanese, iPhone is a new opportunity to develop on the mobile in Europe. It makes it possible to create a global market of mobile applications, as software developed for iPhone in Japan, is used around the world (only the cost of translation and localization of content to ensure). Moreover, the repayment of Apple publisher application is much higher than that proposed by European operators, including traditional subscribers downloading anyway few applications.

The publishers of video games from Japan decided to seize this new chance to take a position in Europe. In July 2008, at the Wireless Japan exhibition in Tokyo (the largest mobile event in Japan), I was struck by the number of publishers who annunced their desire to launch applications on the Appstore, and locate in Europe in 2009. It is true that the Japanese mobile market - over 90% penetration of 3G, and the equivalent of 3.5 billion euros in annual revenues for mobile content - is now saturated. Japanese mobile publishers are now investing again in Europe, and sees iPhone as a beautiful and inexpensive door.

A weak signal of this movement is the arrival of Sunsoft. The Japanese publisher, specializing in "casual games" type MahJong, but also well-known in Japan for his "horror games (See the video game" Alice in distorted land: http://jp.youtube .com / watch? v = faDwOSmTl0E, which was a major success on the Japanese mobile, particularly among teenagers) has launched in recent months its Mahjong Solitaire on Appstore for the global market, which represents a test for his Developing iPhone in Europe.

All the information I collected from Japan suggest that Sunsoft, but also other developers prestigious Japanese video game should go on the offensive on iPhone Appstore and during 2009, on this new the media entertainment titles in Japan. 2009 could be the year of the Japanese attack on iPhone.